MIDFIELD man Ben Rix says Crewe can make few excuses for their opening-day defeat at Wimbledon.

'We need to be aware that we need to do a lot better than that and try and carry on our pre-season form,' he said. 'Hopefully we can beat Wrexham to help us going into the Ipswich game, and get Saturday out of our systems as quickly as possible because we didn't play as well as we have been either individually or as a team. We've got to tell ourselves it's only one game and it's not about one match.'

The talented youngster also refused to hide behind the oppressive heat which quickly sapped strength at Selhurst Park.

'It was very hot and at one point my tongue got caught on the top of my mouth and it was hard to breathe. But we can't make excuses, it was the same for Wimbledon,' he said.

'We know we have to do a lot better. We are going to have bad games every now and then but, hopefully, that will be the last one for a while.'